


Innocence

by bemusedlybespectacled (ardentintoxication)



Series: Hayffie Challenge Daily Prompts [14]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Angst and Humor, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hayffie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-14
Updated: 2012-05-14
Packaged: 2017-11-05 09:08:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/404683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ardentintoxication/pseuds/bemusedlybespectacled
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the prompt "<a href="http://hayffiechallenge.tumblr.com/post/22320793231/prompt-14-peeta-and-katniss-need-babysitters-last">peeta and katniss need babysitters last minute, and effie and haymitch are the only options</a>." "Haymitch is almost sixty and too fucking old for this shit."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Innocence

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Poster](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/8487) by The Minxy Six. 



Haymitch is almost sixty and too fucking old for this shit.

Sure, it's fair. Peeta watched their kids when he and Effie needed some alone time, so it's only fair to take the kids so that Katniss and Peeta get get some nookie. But damn it, he'd forgotten what caring for a three-year-old and a baby can be like even though he swears his own kids were that old only a couple days ago.

Avis, who has declared herself too old for playing as well despite being only a few years older, has retired to her bedroom to do whatever girls do. Rufus and Paulina get it into their heads that they want to play dress up with Daisy, and Daisy, who hasn't stopped asking questions since she was old enough to talk, is determined to find out exactly what everything is and where it comes from.

"Wha's tha'?" she asks, picking up one of Effie's best wigs from the trunk in the basement.

"That's a wig," says Rufus. "It was one of Ma's."

"Wha's tha'?"

"That's a necklace. They're sparkly. I like sparkly," says Paulina.

"Wha's tha'?"

"It's a poster," says Rufus. "I don't know what it's for."

"That looks like Pa," says Paulina, pointing to one of the people on the poster.

"No it doesn't."

"Yeah it does."

"No it doesn't."

"Yeah it does. Look. Haymitch Abernathy. Says it right there."

Standing in the doorway keeping an eye on the kids and praying they don't hurt themselves, Haymitch feels Effie wrap her arms around him from behind.

"You kept it?"

"Of course I did," she mumbles into his shirt. "It's a part of our past, isn't it? It has... sentimental value."

He rolls his eyes, even though he knows she can't see it. "Don't tell me you were a fan."

"I was six! And for the record, no, you were not my favorite."

"Am now, though."

"Obviously." They laugh, quietly, so as not to disturb the children, even as Paulina and Daisy break out Effie's older, more outlandish makeup kits and start smearing it on themselves and Rufus, despite his adamant and vocal objections. "They don't know, dear. They don't know what it means."

"I know."

"We're lucky that they don't have to know."

"I know."

"We can tell them about it when they're older."

"Nah, this is important and they were going to find out eventually. We'll wait until Daisy and the baby go home and then we tell them. Let Katniss and Peeta tell their kids on their own time."

When Katniss and Peeta come over, looking significantly more relaxed than Haymitch and Effie do, Haymitch asks for the book. "So that they know," he says.

**Author's Note:**

> I suppose you could say this is a darker take on "The Poster," because I am dark and creepy and angsty.


End file.
